


EGS Flashfic Week 2020 – '20 Siders!

by Maplestrip



Category: El Goonish Shive
Genre: EGS Flash Fiction Week 2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-06
Updated: 2020-09-13
Packaged: 2021-03-06 21:26:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 3,538
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26325610
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Maplestrip/pseuds/Maplestrip
Summary: Entries for ZeeMcZed's annual Flashfic Week. Very short fics featuring various characters in various unexpected situations.
Relationships: Catalina Bobcat/Diane, Catalina Bobcat/Rhoda, Ellen Dunkel/Nanase Kitsune
Comments: 7
Kudos: 25





	1. Rhoda & Liz – Casually Cuddling

## Rhoda & Liz – Casually Cuddling

It's been five days since Catalina went on vacation without me. I don't blame her for leaving me for a week; Catalina's family had planned this trip before I even met her, and it's just one week. But... and I really feel like a melodramatic teen whenever I admit this to myself, but I just miss her so! It doesn't help that I can't tell Diane and Lucy how I feel; if I come out to them they'll probably just throw me out of their group... I'm sure Grace would be alright with it, but I don't have any lessons with her this week and I don't want to take up her time just because I feel lonely!

So instead, I just wander the mall in my disguise form. It's been two weeks since I discovered I could transform myself in such a way that no one can recognize me, and I have gotten into the habit of walking around the mall like this since. All that really change is my skin color, eye color, hairstyle and the color of my clothing, and the effect is slightly different every time. Today, my skin seems to have turned the darkest yet, and for the first time my hair went pure white. Not the most low-key appearance, but normal enough not to stand out.

And what do I do in this form, you ask? I mostly just sit around in the diner staring at the people walking around. I guess I don't really need a disguise to be able to do that, but it just feels more comfortable knowing no one will recognize me. Sometimes I make myself taller and walk around as a 6'3'' giantess. I suppose a disguise does come in use for that. Today too, I just walk into a changing booth, grow myself over a feet, get out, and... well, I intended to leave the store and just walk around the mall, but instead I suddenly hear a woman sitting in the corner of the room utter "did you just grow?"

I look at her. She's about my age, but I don't recognize her. She probably goes to Moperville North, the school on the other side of town. She has green hair, wears somewhat scruffy clothes, and is fiddling with an unopened pack of cigarettes. She doesn't appear surprised, she seems much too distracted by her own emotions to be surprised by magic. She's trying to look grumpy and irritated, but she seems to be upset about something. I should probably ignore her.

"Are you alright?" I ask. Guess I'm not ignoring her. The disguise spell really makes me too confident. Towering over this young woman probably also helps. She immediately breaks eyecontact and gets up, walking towards the exit. I think that's a sign she doesn't want to talk about it. I grab her by the arm. "I'm lonely," I say. It just blurts out, I just want to talk about my emotions to someone and this random woman (unintentionally) displaying her feelings to me makes me feel like I can open up to her.

She looks at me and for a second I expect her to tell me to let go of her or say that she has her own problems to deal with. I do let go of her, but she doesn't move away and she keeps looking me in the eye. I continue: "My girlfriend is on vacation and... I'm not even out. I have no one to talk to...." I trail off.

She looks down at the unopened pack of cigarettes in her hand, and then she talks "It's just... my parents, ya know?"

I don't really know. My parents are always nice to me, even if I am too afraid to come out to them. The woman looks me in the eye again: "I'm lonely too I guess." And then she just hugs me, suddenly, without any indication. I'm caught of guard. I don't even know who this woman is. Both Diane and Grace have called me "extraordinarily huggable" in the past (the identical choice of words stood out to me). I guess at my size, and with the fluffy sheep hair, I am more huggable than ever? I suddenly do realize I've been starved for physical contact all week. I hug back. Her sweater is soft. We stand like this for a full minute. I feel some tears drop down on my chest. She's crying silently. Eventually, she lets go of me, and I let go of her. She nods, turns around, and walks away. The pack of cigarettes is on the floor, so I pick them up. I'll throw them away in the nearest trashcan. I shrink down again to my default size, and I step out. I think I'll be alright. Just two more days and Catalina will be back.


	2. Elliot & Grace – Cooking Episode

## Elliot & Grace – Cooking Episode

"So it's just the four of us?" Elliot asked to confirm what he really already knew. Grace responded as she took several pots and pans out of the cupboard and put them on the counter: "Yes, I think he'd enjoy a small-scale party more, especially so shortly after the last party. So it's just you, me, Sarah, and Tedd."

Elliot put most of the pans back into the cupboard as Grace started bringing out all sorts of utensils and cuttlery. She's never cooked before in her life and doesn't even know what most of these utensils are for. "We should have two hours before Sarah and Tedd get back," Grace said, "that should be plenty of time to cook, right? Do you have the recipe on your phone?"

Elliot took out his phone and opened the Web page. He had never cooked anything more complicated than a deepfreeze pizza before, so he's out of his element as well. He realized Sarah should've been here to cook, rather than him. Somehow, the two most useless cooks in all of Moperville had to prepare a birthday meal. This is going to be a disaster. Elliot watched Grace slowly grab the large bread knife from the knife block and carefully putting it on the counter top, then take out a chef's knife, a big meat cleaver, etc. The only knife the recipe mentions is a butter knife.

So Elliot took charge and put everything they didn't need away. "We can do this, Grace. Let's just take this one step at a time. These are the utensils we need, and these are the ingredients. We have everything, right?" Grace looked over the list and took out each of the ingredients. "Yes, I think this is everything." All Elliot had to do this time was grab a different kind of butter.

"Alright," Elliot said, "let's get this started. Tedd makes this look easy, so let's take a leaf out of her book." Elliot's hair turned blonde and her features began to change. "We can do this."


	3. Sam & Catalina – Bumping Into Eachother

## Sam & Catalina – Bumping Into Eachother

The jeans store was quite empty. Sam deliberately shops at quiet hours, he just feels less "judged" that way. He wasn't the only customer in the store, though; an energetic girl with orange hair had been browsing the "men's" jeans section before he came in. Sam didn't care for a social interaction while shopping for denim, so he began browsing at the other side of the isle. Before he knew it, however, the orange-haired girl was right next to him.

"Where did you get that blouse?" she asked. Sam was wearing a blue blouse with five pockets sown on it. It was a bit of a fashion disaster, but Sam quite enjoys the storage space. "Uhh, I got it on web.shop?" Sam responded cautiously. The girl responded cheerfully, "I should check out that website. A blouse like that would be super handy. Should give me a chance to wear a skirt without giving up on all the pocket space."

"Ah, I can imagine," Sam responded, "I, uh, know how hard it is to find women's, uh... underwear... with pockets. I mean, pants and skirts and, uh–" Sam's face went bright red as he realized what he said. The girl snickered at Sam's flub, but she didn't ridicule him for the mistake. Rather, she immediately moved on with the conversation: "Lack of pockets is really what's been holding me back from doing a Princess Xena cosplay. Getting that blouse in brown gets me halfway there."

Sam looks at the girl and chuckles, "don't you need, like, a corset and metal bra for that? She doesn't exactly wear a t-shirt."

The girl's eyes lit up "You've watched _Xena_?" she asked. Sam immediately went back to blushing. "Uh, I grew up with it, you know.. You just watch what's on TV. It's not like I liked it or anything." Sam was being quite unconvincing. Catalina just smiled at him, and Sam just sighed, "Like how I grew up with _She-Ra_ videotapes. I only watched those fifty times because there wasn't anything else to do." The two laughed in sync now. 

Catalina grabbed a pair of jeans from the rack and checked out its pockets. "My name is Cat, what's yours?" She was not planning to give her full name to a random guy she met in a store. She's already worried that she's giving him the wrong message, but Catalina is a social creature and she likes making friends. "I'm Sam," the boy responded as he too continued browsing the jeans. "It's ridiculous that women's pants don't have good pockets. I'm very glad I am a guy." 

Catalina nodded. "Yeah, men got it lucky in this department (store)." The two snickered.


	4. Ellen & Nanase – Tedd's Experiment

## Ellen & Nanase – Tedd's Experiment

"You two are probably wondering why I called you here today." Tedd was sitting on a chair, facing away from the stairs. He slowly turns around and looks at his cousin and her girlfriend. He asked the two over without telling them anything. Grace let Nanase and Ellen in, told them to go down into the basement, and then just continued playing on the GameCube. The two have no idea what they're in for.

"Tedd, why did you call us?" Nanase has no patience for mysteries. Tedd chuckled with exaggerated bravado. "Now, if I told you, I would ruin my experiment!" As this scene went on, Ellen grew a big smile on her face. She was really enjoying the theatrics. Nanase was mildly annoyed.

Tedd switched to a slightly less exaggerated tone as he threw Ellen a wand: "Of course, the experiment is totally safe and should take about an hour of your time. Of course, I can't tell you what it's about just yet. Ellen, can you wave that wand at my cousin while saying the word 'duck'?"

Ellen inspected the drumstick. Not that she could see anything special about it. Nanase began protesting: "Are you turning me into a duck..?" Tedd shaked his head and smiled. Ellen did not feel like waiting around, so she just waved the wand at her girlfriend and yelled: "DUCK!"

Everything went hazy for a second and both Ellen and Nanase felt like they lost control over their bodies. they stumbled, but a split-second later, they felt in control again. Ellen realized she was no longer holding the drumstick. Nanase noticed green locks in front of her eyes. Both of them felt a bit weird, though Ellen was the first to recognize what happened: "Oh, I transformed into Nanase?" Nanase looked down, and saw Ellen's body. "Huh, typical bodyswap scenario? Clothes swapped too, and... positions in the room?"

Tedd is frantically writing, leaving the two girls to inspect their bodies. "It feels a little bit different than a clone form, but not much," Ellen says as she is feeling Nanase's clothes. "I think my vision is slightly different? My voice seems more affected too." Tedd began to talk: "Oh, it's not just a form swap. This is a full-fledged mindswap!" The two girls weren't entirely sure what to think of this revelation. "Uh, this is temporary, right?" Nanase asked. Still writing, Tedd responded curtly: "Yeah, you just have to stay in the same room."

Ellen, in Nanase's body, sat down on the couch. "Alright, so now what? Is there anything special about a mindswap compared to a normal bodyswap?" Tedd smiled at the question: "Oh, most certainly. For example, Nanase, try summoning a fairy doll." Nanase sat down and closed her eyes, then opened them again. "Uhh?? I... can't?" Nanase stood up and closed her eyes again. "I can't use any of my spells! Tedd, what did you do!?" Tedd has never seen Ellen's face look quite this angry, and he had seen Ellen angry before. The idea of not being able to use magic is not something Nanase appreciates.

In a puff of smoke, a clone of Nanase's form appeared on the couch next to Ellen. Nanase looked behind her and stood perplexed. "..Fox?"

Ellen's smile has grown even bigger. Tedd has never seen Nanase's face this cheerful.

"I figured it out," Ellen said as she lounged back on the couch. Fox mirrored her pose, being equally relaxed. "We have access to eachother's spells right now. That's why I can do this." Ellen closed her eyes and a fairy appeared on Nanase's shoulder. "Oh, wow... the world is big from this perspective."

Nanase was somehow even more perplexed than she was before. Then she held her arm up and aimed at Tedd. A green beam shot from her hand and hit her cousin, FV5'ing him instantly. "Huh," Nanase said, "This is interesting." Ellen landed on Nanase's stretched-out arm and faced her girlfriend: "I think we can have some fun with this."

Tedd just sat there in her chair. "I did not expect them to figure out how to use eachother's spells this proficiently..." And thus, she continued writing notes.


	5. Nanase & Nanase – Cram Session

## Nanase & Nanase – Cram Session

"Ok, we can do this." Nanase looks her clone in the eye. Fox opened the math textbook. Summoning her while in a moment of resolve turned this instance of Fox into quite a focused individual. She's ready to help her summoner learn. Sadly, Nanase herself instantly lost her motivation the moment she saw the complicated equations on the page. She sat back and rubbed her eyes. "Agh, who am I kidding, I'm never going to get this. These equations make no sense!"

Fox put her hand on Nanase's shoulder and looked at her with empathetic eyes. Nanase sighed. "Alright, let's go through this again."

Nanase read through the explanation again, this time out loud. Fox made notes. Though the clone has no understanding of language, she can write down logical functions, equations, charts, and graphs, in ways that tend to be useful for Nanase to read back. Though they are generally not entirely correct. Nanase looked Fox' notes over.

"You drew out a sine wave? Wait, what are these dots?" Nanase looked at the drawing Fox made and started filling in the correct numbers. "Oh... I think.. I get it now?"


	6. Catalina & Diane – Netflix & Chill

## Catalina & Diane - Netflix & Chill

Despite many years of attending Moperville North, Diane never made many friends. She was a cheerleader for the Frenzied Turkeys, but always had a hard time connecting with the other cheerleaders. There was one girl she used to hang out with quite a bit, but sadly Diane hadn't really spoken with her in over a year. Catalina.

Diane joined the cheerleaders, and Catalina the feminism club. It was quite cliché clique-forming and Diane initially didn't pay any mind to it, but the other cheerleaders always held mild disdain for the Moperville North feminism club and, to top it off, Diane never felt comfortable around Susan, the leader of the feminism club. There was just something about her that creeped Diane out, and the feeling seemed to be mutual.

But since the new school year started, Diane and Catalina shared several classes again. It didn't take long for the two to pass innoquous notes back and forth during classes. It started with simple pen-and-paper games like tic-tac-toe and hangman, then they started making jokes and telling stories. Diane finally felt like she was making a connection with someone again. It was nice.

Then, one class, Catalina passed her a note: "Want to hang out at my place after school?" Diane didn't need to think for long: "Sure :D"

It's been a year and a half since Diane was last at Catalina's place. It somehow seemed to have gotten both smaller and bigger since the last time she was there. She rung the doorbell.

The two decided to just put on a show on TV and have a good time. Catalina opened the streaming service and told Diane that she'd be happy watching anything. Of course, right at the top were shows Catalina had recently watched, and Diane really didn't want to make Catalina watch something she's not used to. 

Diane could see Catalina had most recently watched the first two episodes of She-Ra, the 2018 cartoon series, so she faked an interest in that. She hadn't watched any cartoons in over a year, but that was just because she no longer had any friends who were into them. She never even really considered why that was.

Catalina and Diane watched six episodes of She-Ra back-to-back, then decided to order pizza and continue binging the show. Diane began leaning into Catalina, who began to blush. As the evening went on, the two became more and more relaxed. Before they knew it, it was 10 in the evening, and Diane told Catalina that she really had to go home.

One more episode, though.

As the two watched Adora fight Catra, their hands became intertwined. And they looked at eachother. And Catalina initiated a kiss. And Diane kissed back.

Five minutes later, Diane was grabbing her jacket and got ready to drive home. She left without really saying much to Catalina. Diane had to think a bit during the drive home. Never before had she really considered these feelings. Once home, she laid herself in bed, grabbed her phone, and started texting.

"Shall we do this again tomorrow? :)"


	7. Susan & Nanase – Just There for Emotional Support

## Susan & Nanase – Just There for Emotional Support

Susan's phone rung loudly. It was 10:50 PM. Who calls at this hour? Susan was just about to turn her phone off for the night, but now instead she answered the phone. "Hello?"

"Hi Susan. This is Nanase. Uh... How are you– How are you doing this evening?"

Susan narrowed her eyes. "Since when do you make phonecalls?"

Nanase paused a second at this question. "I didn't want to catch you undressed again! But also... I just didn't feel like really... existing in a place right now? You know? I just wanted to be in that trancendental space when you are on the phone with someone. Not really in my room, not in yours, but engulved purely in the conversation."

"You're getting philosophical," Susan observed, "what's going on, Nanase?"

"It's our anniversary," Nanase said.

"Oh."

The two were quiet for nearly half a minute before Susan spoke up again: "Since when do you call me about that? You've never called me about that before."

"It– I mean, it was Ellen's idea. She noticed something was up and when I told her it had been five years since France she suggested I'd call you. She figured it might be on your mind as well–"

"It hadn't occurred to me," Susan interrupted. A few seconds of silence. "I mean, the specific day. I do think back to it often of course. But I try not to think about it too much. I just get depressed when I do. I prefer to keep it out of mind. It's not worth wasting mental space on."

"It's just, I realized that pretty much everything in our lives since... It all wouldn't have happened if we didn't get magic that day. Like, it was really life-defining." Nanase said.

"Yes, that's true. We probably would've been killed by Goo if we hadn't killed that aberration in France. Or Elliot, Ellen, Sarah, and Grace at least. I *think* Grace was there when we fought that Goo monster? We get into too many fights." Susan sighed again. She'd rather not be thinking about all this.

"We got stronger that day, but that doesn't mean that that was a good night," Nanase continued.

"Well, obviously. It was traumatizing and those immortals should've brought in adults to deal with he aberration." Susan said

"Yes, but that doesn't mean that everything we have done with that experience since has been bad too, right? We've taken control of our life. The things we've achieved are our own."

Another 20 seconds of silence. Susan was the first to speak up again: "You're right, Nanase. Our strength and what we've done with it is our own."

"Yes," Nanase said, "I just wanted to call to say that."

Susan sighed. "Thank you for checking up on me, Nanase."

Nanase laughed softly. "Here I thought my call was pretty selfish. Just here to vent and find some emotional support. I'm glad if it didn't come across that way."

"It's good to know you're not alone in something like this."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you very much, ZeeMcZed, for creating such a lovely flashfiction event. I had a very good time writing these and am proud of the end-results. I had an incredible good time reading flashfics by other people and I'm looking forward to next year!
> 
> Thank you all very much for reading :)


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